La Mala Educacion by Pedro Almodóvar

The University of Ottawa’s “Viernes de película” film series showcases “La Mala Educación,” a film directed by Pedro Almodóvar that was nominated for five Goya Awards.

Bad Education

• Directed by Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 2004, 105 minutes.
• Original title: La mala educación.
• In Spanish with English subtitles.

Enrique (Fele Martínez) is a young film director. Actor Ignacio (Gael García Bernal) turns up looking for work and identifies himself as a childhood friend. Enrique doesn’t recognize the man, but his reaction to the name Ignacio signals a deeply intertwined past. Ignacio has written a story and asks Enrique to make it into a film –and cast him in the lead. The story is based on their time at Catholic boarding school, where they fell in love but were pulled apart by Father Manolo (Daniel Giménez Cacho).

Bad Education is a voluptuous experience that invites you to gorge on its beauty and vitality, although it has perhaps the darkest ending of any of the films by the Spanish writer and director.

—The New York Times